Whitney, 28, graduated from Yale University.

George Washington and Thomas Jefferson both became President while owning slaves, knowing that this peculiar institution contradicted the ideals and principles for which they fought a revolution. But both men believed that slavery was going to die out as the 19th century dawned, They were, of course, tragically mistaken. The reason was an invention, a machine they probably told you about in elementary school: Mr. Eli Whitney's cotton gin. A Yale graduate, 28-year-old Whitney had come to South Carolina to work as a tutor in 1793. Supposedly he was told by some local planters about the difficulty of cleaning cotton. Separating the seeds from the cotton lint was tedious and time consuming.